Welcome to the Happiness podcast. I'm Dr. Robert Puff. As we journey through life, we make a lot of mistakes.

Sometimes little, sometimes big. I actually remember the first mistake I ever made in life.

I probably made more before this, but it's the first one I remember. I was three years old,

and my parents had warned me about the dangers of fire. We would go camping often throughout my

childhood, and at night, when it would get colder, my father would build a fire. I remember how

much I enjoyed these times, just looking at the flames and being fascinated with the different

colors within the fire. So I knew of the

dangers of fire from a very young age, but I was three years old and I was in the kitchen with my mother.

She was cooking, and I knew the stove was on, but I was being careless because I'd never been

burned by fire before. We had an electric stope-top heater, so the coils were bright red.

I don't remember why, but I reached up to grab something on the stove. I knew my parents warned me

about touching fire that it would really hurt, but had never been burnt before. But when I touched

those coils, I had my first excruciating experience of the causal effects of fire.

It was so memorable I remember it to this very day.

I even remember how long it took from my fingers to heal.

They first blistered, then they popped, and they were so sensitive for days.

I can't, of course, say that I was never burnt by fire again, but if it was, it was an accident because I knew the real dangers of fire

from that point forward. I had learned my lesson. And I really think this was one of the

pivotal points, changing points, of my life. Of course, like all of us,

I've made a lot of mistakes in my life that I've learned from. But after that moment of burning

my hand, I had a new tool that I started using, and I've used it to this very day. I knew my parents

had warned me about fire and the dangers that it

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